Outdoors briefs: Texas parks deemed perfect for stargazers

Enchanted Rock, along with Copper Breaks State Park, has just been given top night sky status for its nighttime views by the International Dark Sky Association. It joins Big Bend National Park and the city of Dripping Springs as Texas' only locations to achieve the status. For regional notes in Travel.

Last week’s peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower was somewhat dimmed by the waning super moon. The best place to see any celestial show is a place far from artificial light pollution. Two state parks have recently achieved international dark sky status from the International Dark Sky Association.

Copper Breaks State Park is 13 miles south of Quanah in the Panhandle Plains Region, and Enchanted Rock State Natural Area is 15 miles north of Fredericksburg in the Hill Country Region.

They join Big Bend National Park and the city of Dripping Springs as the only Texas sites to earn Dark Sky Recognition. Many Texas parks in rural areas conduct stargazing programs.

“One of our most valued attributes in Texas is its natural beauty,” said TP&W State Parks Division Director Brent Leisure. “This beauty is not limited to the light of day, but extends into the night sky, where Texans can enjoy a front-row seat to the splendor of the universe.”

Oklahoma fishery gets help circulating water

City, state and federal officials have joined to support the Canton Lake, Okla., fishery with the installation of two reservoir water circulators. Canton Lake is a water supply lake for Oklahoma City.

A receding lake level combines with hot, still summer weather to lower oxygen levels in the water.

Oklahoma City paid most of the bill for leasing two reservoir water circulators that move about 10,000 gallons of water per minute.

Moving the water helps to oxygenate it. Barry Bolton, Oklahoma’s fisheries division chief, said northwest Oklahoma lakes have some of the state’s best overall fishing.

Private property most popular for hunting

Texas is not the only state where most hunting occurs on private property.

In a HunterSurvey.com survey, 39 percent of respondents nationwide said they hunted most often on a friend’s or family member’s property. Sixteen percent said they hunted most often on property they own, and 11 percent hunt most often on a leased property.

The lease number would be much higher in Texas, where 98 percent of the land is privately owned. In spite of high lease prices, Texas hunting is good enough that 72,755 nonresidents paid a significant premium for this state’s hunting licenses last year. A nonresident general hunting license costs $315, compared with $25 for a resident, who may then pony up as much as $21 for “stamp endorsements” if he hunts upland and migratory game birds and hunts with a bow in archery season.

Fishing pro Marshall to sell own knife brand

It sounds like a partnership made in heaven, unless you’re a crappie.

Texas fishing pro Wally Marshall, aka Mr. Crappie, catches and fillets thousands of crappie each year. Now Marshall is designing a signature series of knives for Buck Knives, one of the nation’s most respected brands for hunting and fishing knives.

The Mr. Crappie brand of products is expected to be introduced in early 2015.

Sharks should be far from biggest concern

Despite the thrills and chills associated with Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, worldwide, a human’s odds of being killed by a shark are one in 3.7 million. That’s according to the International Shark Attack File kept by George Burgess at the University of Florida.

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